Archive for May, 2007|Monthly archive page

(Nanowerk News) In March, CIELAP, the Canadian Institute for Environmental Law and Policy, held a one-day workshop in Toronto to explore policy considerations for nanotechnology. Along with additional research, this workshop provided the basis for CIELAP to develop a proposed Canadian Nanotechnology Policy framework (pdf download, 672 KB)more at source

Neurotechnology Industry Report Says Revenues Grew 10% to $120.5 Billion in 2006; U.S. Economic Impact of Brain-related Illness Reached $1 Trillion
Specific findings from the Neurotechnology Industry 2007 Report include:
• Brain-related illnesses afflict more than two billion people worldwide
• The worldwide economic burden of this problem has reached more than $2 trillion per year; more than $1 trillion in the U.S. alone
• 2006 venture capital investment in neurotechnology rose 7.5% to $1.666 billion
• Neurotech industry revenues rose 10% in 2006 to $120.5 billion; this includes neuropharmaceutical revenues of $101 billion, neurodevice revenues of $4.5 billion, neurodiagnostic revenues of $15 billion
• The Neurotech Index of publicly-traded neurotechnology companies was up 53% from its December 31, 2003 conception to March 31, 2006, outpacing the NASDAQ Biotech Index which gained 7% during the same period

Neurotechnology is still very much a frontier industry. In the past year we’ve reached some important milestones, including formation of NIO, the first industry organization devoted to the specific needs of neurotechnology companies. 2006 was also a tremendous year of growth for the industry, and 2007 looks to continue this trend so as technologies improve and our collective body of knowledge grows. Countless opportunities exist as visionary researchers tackle the complexities of brain-related health and visionary companies, organizations and policy makers address the complexities of bringing those discoveries to the billions of people suffering from brain-related illnesses.

Tel Aviv (Israel) – Two scientists from the Tel-Aviv University have
shown that information can be stored in live neurons. The research
results provide a new way to help understand how our brain learns and
store information, but also indicate that a “cyborg-like integration of
living material into memory chips” could become a reality in the
foreseeable future.more at source

In the end of 2006 the Federal Institute for Risk Assessment (BfR) staged the first nationwide Consumer Conference on Nanotechnology in order to find out what requirements informed consumers want use of this technology to meet. The Conference served as a forum for a group of 16 individuals to acquire broad insight into the opportunities and risks of nanotechnology in a multi-phase process. The group mainly focused on the use of nanotechnology in foods, cosmetics and textiles. After a public expert hearing the group proceeded to the consumer vote. The consumer vote was publicly handed over to representatives of politics, associations and authorities as the outcome of the Consumer Conference.

Scientists from Institute of Biophysics and Nanosystems Research (IBN), Austrian Academy of Sciences and of Centre for Biomedical Engineering, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, USA report the study of “Tuning Curvature and Stability of Monoolein Bilayers by Designer Lipid-Like Peptide Surfactants” in the May 30th issue of the online, open-access journal PLoS ONE. Their findings not only help us to understand the basic science of how lipid-like peptides interact with lipid molecules, but also may provide new strategies for the encapsulation and the delivery of biological active materials. They detailed their findings in the report on the impact of integrating short surfactant-like designer peptides in lipidic nanostructures.

University of Alberta research team has combined two fields of study in nanotechnology to create a third field that the researchers believe will lead to revolutionary advances in computer electronics, among many other areas.

Dr. Abdulhakem Elezzabi and his colleagues have applied plasmonics principles to spintronics technology and created a novel way to control the quantum state of an electron’s spin.

The new technology, which the researchers call spinplasmonics, may be used to create incredibly efficient electron spin-based photonic devices, which in turn may be used to build, for example, computers with extraordinary capacities.